June Date Set for Mayoral Primaries in New York

New York voters are scheduled to go back to the polls on June 22, 2021 to decide on who will be their pick to run as the Democratic and Republican contenders for mayor in the election scheduled for November 2021.

Already 29 candidates have declared their intention to run, most of them Democrats. That is the largest group of NY mayor wannabes in recent memory.

Among the politicians who have tossed in their hats are Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and city Comptroller Scott Stringer. Some served as officials in the de Blasio government, such as the former Sanitation Department Commissioner Kathryn Garcia and the former Chief Counsel Maya Wiley.

None of the many hopefuls have pulled away from the pack as yet, and no major Republicans have declared their intention to run. Predicting the final outcome is even harder than usual because this election might be the first mayoral race in New York to include ranked-choice voting. This system allows voters to rank their top five choices for mayor, which will involve a series of eliminations and recalculation of vote tallies if none of the candidates grab a majority of votes. There is a chance the election will not be carried out this way if hearings the City Council is holding will determine that it is too soon to introduce a system of voting the citizens are not sufficiently familiar with.

It is clear that voters will be looking for a mayor who is capable of leading the city out of the morass and destruction of the coronavirus pandemic, and someone who can show leadership to help New Yorkers with the challenge.